Emails

 Emails

November 25, 2024

Dear Friends and Family,

    I hope you all are well.  Most of you are settling into cold weather and possibly snow.  I'm sorry about that as I sit in heat wishing the A/C could push out more cool air.

   Elder Thacker and I still continue to have fun adventurous days, but it does feel like Sierra Leone is  our home away from home.  We continue to be blown away by what we see and how an entire country lives so far behind the rest of the world.  I find myself enjoying the simplicity of life here and wondering if I really need all that I have at home.

  I have learned that malaria is real and is not selective on who it choses.  Most Sierra Leones will contract it many times in their life, that is if they live through it.  There are a few ways the malaria parasite affects the body.  1.  The brain,  2. The muscle and joints, and 3. Nausea and stomach. We have a dear Branch President who contracted malaria in the brain.  The parasite finds its way to the brain without giving your body any sick like symptoms.  This parasite is the most dangerous.  The brain is not able to think clearly and it makes you hallucinate, turn angry, act irrational as if one has gone mad.  Gratefully, the doctors here are fully aware of malaria and can treat them well.  Most of the time, the people here do not recognize the madness as malaria and they die without treatment.  This branch President did receive the treatment he needed, but he does not remember the attack.  I believe that was a blessing.  It was quite an experience to be exposed to. He is doing fine now.

  Elder Thacker and I needed to travel to Freetown to take care of things, grocery shop, and get an alignment done on the truck we drive.  This was a crazy process to behold.  We call the Toyota service department.  When Fred asked if they could do alignments they said no, but there was a guy on "Ferry Road" that did them...(alignments are actually called tracking.) When Fred asked if there was an alignment machine in Sierra Leone he was told no. Can you even imagine not having an alignment machine in an entire country?  Well we ask how we can find this tracking guy.  He tells us to drive to "Ferry Road" and ask for the alignment man.  Sure enough, the first person we asked on this very busy road, the person took us right to Mr. Alignment.  We pull into a cement pad of air, pull forward until the techs motion for us to stop.  The alignment operation is so simplistic you will have to view the pictures to see it.  It involves a mirror and prism.  Once they say the tires are aligned, "Mr. Alignment" jumps in the driver's seat and drives us around to the pavement road.  Says the road is flat and "can you see?  The steering wheel is straight."   

  We love serving with the Junior Elders and the YSA (young single adults.)  Elder Thacker keeps the elder's apartment in good repair, especially their generator.  Generators are the most valuable asset our apartments have, yet they can be quite time consuming to keep them running.  We both keep our elders fed each Sunday evening.  It is a joy to see them get their stomachs full and listen to them enjoy a brief moment to unwind.  There are 5 sets of elders in our area.  They all live in the same house with 8 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms and 2 kitchens.  It sounds like a mission disaster, however the missionaries that get assigned to Kono are excellent ones that are dedicated to the work, their job, and obedience.  They have a great time in the house.

  We both spend time with the YSA.  There is a West Africa church program called the Gathering Place.  Once you have a district and stake you can set one up.  We however, are not a district yet so elder Thacker and I are simulating a version of it.  We meet for institute one evening a week,  and then another night for an activity.  This has been so enjoyable.  They do not play many games here in Sierra Leone so the simplistic games just create so much enjoyment.  We play musical chairs, snowball fights with paper balls, spoons, "Do you love your neighbor?"  They LOVE to play these silly games.

  I will share one miracle before I close:

    The Lord is gathering his children in Africa.  Every two weeks our missionaries hold baptisms.  The number of baptisms are growing.  Last month we had around 30 new members.  This next baptism, which has only been 2 weeks, there will be right at 30.  I found a tailor to make more baptism clothes to accommodate the growth.  Our area had their first area conference.  In 2018 the church began here in a home with 11 members.  At this conference yesterday we had 451 members on record and at the conference we had just short of 500 in attendance.

We love serving a mission.  We are grateful to our children and grandchildren for sacrificing for our sake.  We love you all and appreciate your prayers and support.

Elder and Sister Thacker

Pictures:  YSA friends, conference friends, and feeding our missionaries.  1 of our companionships their is a missionary from Tonga.  They had matching outfits made for the conference. Unknowing to me, I wore a matching outfit as well.  The picture is showing a "T" with our arms to show we are Tonga strong. :)